Sunday, May 08, 2011

I had purchased some ground pork at the grocery store that I intended to make into a Banh Mi Xiu Mai (Vietnamese Meatball Sandwich), but with some fresh tomato sauce added. Then after a busy weekend with my Vietnamese regional cuisine tour of Little Saigon and walking around outside my brother's neighborhood, I got sick. Woozy-headed, coughing, sniffles, the usual cold/flu-ish/spring allergies. Oh, I really was not in the mood to do much for the past week. But that ground pork need to be cooked. Well, I guess I could have just put it in the freezer, but I was hungry too. And still craving tomato-y meatballs with lightly crispy Vietnamese French bread.

So I decided to make a sort of deconstructed Vietnamese meatball sandwich. While I was cooking the pork, it was very reminiscent of Bo "Ne" Bit Tet (Vietnamese "Stand Back" Beef Steak) that I frequently had for breakfast with my cousin the last time I was in my hometown in Vietnam. So after the quick stir-fry, I spooned over a bit into another pan, fried one sunny side up egg (so it can soak in all the lovely meaty juices while cooking), tossed a chopped scallion for color, and it was an oh-so-very-satisfying meal.

Whether I really was that hungry, or what, but I really like the pop of color in these photos. Simple Vietnamese homecooking that made me very happy. Of course, you can serve the stir-fry with plain rice if you wish, but I quite liked it with Vietnamese French bread.

Optional:
Serve with sunny side up eggs and Vietnamese French bread, or with rice. Drizzle Maggi Seasoning Sauce or fish sauce on top of the eggs before serving.

In a saucepan, drizzle a bit of oil and add the ground pork and chopped tomatoes. Then add 1 tsp fish sauce, 1 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp ground black pepper. Break up the pork into smaller pieces with a wooden spoon.

In a few minutes, the tomatoes will have released their juices and slight sweetness. When the pork is fully cooked, you're done. You can spoon this over rice and eat it as is if you wish.

Or, you can heat up another pan on medium heat, and spoon the ground pork and tomato stir-fry into one side of the pan. Add one or two eggs if you wish and fry them sunny side up.

Lightly cover the pan so the egg will cook a little bit on top, unless you like your eggs really raw and runny. In any case, toast the Vietnamese French bread while you wait for the eggs to cook.

Add a chopped scallion for color if you wish.

Normally, I would also drizzle some Maggi Seasoning Sauce on top of the eggs, but I got a hold of some very good quality Red Boat Fish Sauce and used that instead.

Dab the egg and stuff the French bread and eat as you wish.

My childhood friend came over for dinner last night and instead of going out, I offered up the leftovers and a bottle of pinot gris from Hawks View Cellars - Sherwood - Oregon. Simple meal, great wine, lifelong friend, much needed girl talk. Just what I needed.

By the way, did you lose any posts? I lost my last one (with your comment on it) and had to remake the whole darn thing, thanks to Blogger and its problems...They announced that they were removing posts and that they'd restore them, but they didn't. Hmph.

Dennis,Haha. Yeah, I did. I was sick and too tired to bother with nice plating for photos or for eating.

Tammy,I like the broken egg myself. I did lose posts and comments. Thankfully the comments have been restored. I had posts in draft that weren't saved so I had to re-do the Flickr coding all over again. Oh, well, could've been worse. I'm just glad they were able to restore most of everything.

Hey WC, thanks for dropping by -- I've missed your regular postings, but I suspect you've got a lot on your plate. I know what you mean about dangerous places like Pat's Corner. There was a lot of temptation, but I had a very very firm idea of what space I don't have! The little table I got was about 14" long by maybe 11" wide -- just a little something to set a plant on.

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